- Jared Martin as Dr. Harrison Blackwood
- Lynda Mason Green as Suzanne McCullough
- Philip Akin ( Highlander: The Series )as Norton Drake [ 1 ]
- Richard Chaves ( Predator ) as Colonel Paul Ironhorse [ 1 ]
- Rachel Blanchard as Debi McCullough
- John Vernon ( The Questor Tapes ) as General Wilson [ 1 ]
- Ilse Von Glatz as one of the Advocacy [ 1 ]
- Richard Comar as one of the Advocacy [ 1 ]
- Michael Rudder as one of the Advocacy [ 1 ]
Season 1
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 1]
The Resurrection (120 min)
Shown 07/Oct/88
This is a sequel to the 1953 movie, as opposed to a complete reboot. The aliens were defeated by bacterial infection, and their bodies stored in barrels on US Military bases. Unfortunately, some terrorists attack the base and accidentally shoot holes in some of the drums. With exposure to radiation from nearby nuclear waste, the bacteria are killed and the aliens return to life. Worse, they can now absorb a human host body (like The Thing ).
The Aliens have a battle cry - To Life Immortal! It is quite catchy, but distractingly ironic due to the fact that they generally use it before doing something suicidal.
Dr. Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin) is a free-thinking University professor who works with Microbiologist Suzanne McCullough ( Lynda Mason Green ) and computer programmer Norton Drake (Philip Akin - Highlander: The Series ). Blackwood is the only person not affected by collective amnesia, so he can remember the alien invasion 35 years earlier in 1953. He has been working on locating the aliens' homeworld, so his team detects the ...
Colonel Paul Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) leads Delta Squad in a hunt for the aliens. Unfortunately, he neglects Dr Blackwood's advice. As a result, his Special Forces team have the same life expectancy as the Colonial Marines in Aliens .
General Wilson (John Vernon - The Questor Tapes ) is Suzanne's uncle, and Ironhorse's superior. He provides backing for Blackwood's team, with Ironhorse as co-leader.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 2]
The Walls of Jericho
Shown 10/Oct/88
The aliens have not been seen or heard from in several weeks. The Military hope that most of them died in the explosions that destroyed their ships. Even Blackwood has to admit that the only thing saving the aliens from near-lethal bacteria is lethal levels of radiation. So General Wilson (John Vernon - The Questor Tapes ) pays a visit and tells the team that they can go back to their day-jobs.
The aliens stage a heist at a plastics factory. Then they try to steal liquid nitrogen from a military rocket base. Naturally, their suspicious Modus Operandi is flagged on law enforcement databases, thanks to Norton hacking them and installing a search algorithm. The team predicts where the aliens will strike next, then Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) and Blackwood go undercover as government inspectors. General Wilson himself comes along as backup.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 3]
Thy Kingdom Come
Shown 17/Oct/88
A trio of aliens cross the border to Canada. There is another stash of preserved invaders there.
Harrison Blackwood consults his stepmother ( Ann Robinson from the original 1953 movie), who is in an Old Folks' Home.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 4]
A Multitude of Idols
Shown 24/Oct/88
TV news reporter Michelle Scarabelli and her cameraman, Von Flores ( Earth: Final Conflict ) are doing a story on the truckers who transport radioactive waste. They stumble across an alien hijacking of the trucks.
The aliens take the trucks to a ghost town that was abandoned in the 1960s because it was built near a nuclear test zone. They kidnap the entire population of a nearby town, providing enough human host bodies for their resurrected army.
Even Ironhorse's rank is not enough pull to get access to satellite photos of the area. Blackwood and Suzanne go in by car, and unfortunately blunder into the town where everyone is possessed by an alien. Colonel Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) compares fighting the aliens to his time in Vietnam, fighting an enemy he could not see. But he can hardly be old enough to be a 'Nam veteran, surely!
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 5]
Eye for an Eye
Shown 31/Oct/88
The Blackwood team go to Grover's Mill for halloween. They even bring Debbie, Suzanne's pre-teen daughter. It is the fiftieth anniversary of the Orson Welles radio broadcast of 1938, and Blackwood wants to interview the final four survivors of the town Militia.
The aliens have also sent a team to the town, disguised as a motorcycle gang. Their plan is to dig up the wreck of an alien ship that crashed in 1938, and salvage any usable weapons.
Our heroes have to team up with the Militia survivors, luring the alien bikers into an ambush.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 6]
The Second Seal
Shown 07/Nov/88
Norton discovers that the majority of items from the 1953 invasion are stored at the nearby Fort Streeter, in the San Francisco Bay area. Colonel Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) introduces the team to General Masters (Greg Morris - Mission: Impossible ). A female TV reporter is also on the base, nosing around. A pity they did not re-use TV news reporter Michelle Scarabelli and her cameraman, Von Flores ( Earth: Final Conflict ).
The team are given access to the storage room. It is in the World War Two Pacific Command Bunker, 372 feet below ground level. Blackwood and Suzanne get trapped in the storage bays while the aliens try to secure the area. Worse, our heroes have managed to get high by touching a glowing alien crystal.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 7]
Goliath Is My Name
Shown 14/Nov/88
A gang of aliens dressed as the Blues Brothers try to infiltrate a University campus. Their plan is to steal some research that was being performed there. This particular piece of research is the Y-Virus, a piece of biological weaponry that can melt a human brain. Just the thing to grow in a low-security lab on a campus surrounded by ten thousand immature college students.
The aliens encounter a team of students (including Jill Hennessy, Carolyn Dunn ) playing laser-tag. One of the humans gets dissolved. By incredible coincidence, this was a former lab assistant of Suzanne. She insists that the others accompany her on an investigation.
One thing the aliens never considered was that they could be vulnerable to the Y-Virus too. The result is interesting to say the least.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 8]
To Heal the Leper
Shown 21/Nov/88
The Alien Triumverate have been crippled. One of them has caught chickenpox, despite them all being irradiated against all human diseases. They are now indecisive, and cannot function as leaders.
Norton is confused when the aliens stop transmitting altogether. It is a pity he could not crack their codes or triangulate their position, but their radio silence is the only thing that actually gets his attention. Harrison Blackwood's stepmother Sylvia Van Buren ( Ann Robinson ) is still in the old folks home, and suddenly seems lucid.
The triumverate take three new human hosts (including Kim Coates - Sons of Anarchy) and starts a road-trip across the USA. The aliens steal human brains in order to create the cure. Blackwood investigates, despite Ironhorse's cynicism.
The aliens' plan is to take over a power station. The company's logo has twin lightning flashes, not unlike a certain German wartime unit. Blackwood works it out first, and does not even tell the others. He just charges straight in, without backup.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 9]
The Good Samaritan
Shown 26/Dec/88
The title character is Michael Martin Martin (Alex Cord - Genesis II ), a billionaire industrialist. Unlike his character of Archangel in Airwolf, here he specialises in food technology. His company has perfected an irradiated grain, and he plans to distribute it to the whole world. This sounds like a precursor to 21st Century Frankenstein Foods, and the post-Somalia policy of flooding the Third World with cheap grain. Unfortunately, these are bad things ...
Suzanne McCullough is intrigued by the scientific techniques that manufacture of this new foodstuff utilises. She arranges to meet with MMM. Unfortunately he is a complete womaniser. He has a wife, a mistress and an affair with his secretary. Will Suzanne be the fourth woman in his love life?
The Aliens try to take advantage of the food distribution scheme, by poisoning the grain. This will kill the human species a lot quicker, but it might have been more subtle of them to let it go ahead without interference. Letting a megalomaniac drive all other food producers out of business, monopolising the market and then crashing it, could have produced a devastating global famine in a few decades time.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 10]
Epiphany
Shown 02/Jan/89
A team of Russian nuclear scientists are in San Francisco to negotiate a nuclear disarmament treaty. One of them is a Dr. Harrison Blackwood's ex, so he sneaks out of the Safe House and tries to get her to defect.
Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) is unhappy about this show of initiative. He tries to help the KGB boss (Patrick McNee - Battlestar Galactica 1978 ) to stop the defection.
The Aliens are also in town. They want to set off a mini-nuke, hopefully starting a full-on nuclear war.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 11]
Among the Philistines
Shown 09/Jan/89
A scientist offers to help the team. He claims to be able to crack the aliens' code that they use on intercepted radio communications. Nobody bothers to triangulate the aliens' base.
The scientist is invited to the safe-house. Then everyone heads off to attack the aliens. All that is left to protect the safe-house is Norton Drake (Philip Akin - Highlander: The Series ) - with his wheelchair and his impressive upper-body strength. It is good that they actually give him something to do for a change.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 12]
Choirs of Angels
Shown 16/Jan/89
The aliens create a subliminal brainwashing soundtrack. They embed it in a recording of an electric guitar solo of the show's theme music. Anyone who listens to the music will be brainwashed. Rather than try to brainwash humans en mass, or even to target VIPs, all they want is a single human scientist. He can create a vaccine that will make the Aliens immune to all Earth diseases!
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 13]
Dust to Dust
Shown 23/Jan/89
A grave-robber dressed like Indiana Jones steals a Native American head-dress. It turns out to have the controls of an alien star-ship. The heroes want it, as does the Native American Shaman - and the aliens want it too!
The aliens must have sent a scout-ship centuries before the invasion force landed. Not unlike the Taelons' plan to send Ma'el to Strandhill in Ireland circa the year 500 (see Earth: Final Conflict ).
Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) gets a love interest - the Shaman's grandaughter.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 14]
He Feedeth Among the Lilies
Shown 30/Jan/89
The team have run out of clues. They start interviewing Alien Abduction victims. This reveals a terrible fact - the aliens are experimenting on people.
Blackwood takes an interest in a beautiful abductee. She blocks out the details of her ordeal, so he suggests she be hypnotised. But as she becomes the love interest of a regular character, what is her life expectancy?
One of the other alien abductees is Julian Richings ( Supernatural ), who reappears as one of the main aliens in Season Two.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 15]
The Prodigal Son
Shown 06/Feb/89
Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ), Blackwood and the lady doctor are invited to address the UN Security Council. Only now have they decided to get International help about the alien invasion.
Blackwood is invited to meet a reclusive artist named Quinn (John Colicos - Star Trek ). But Quinn is being hunted by the aliens. He has something they want. He offers a compromise that he wants the UN and the Advocacy to accept. Instead of killing all humans, the aliens should only kill 90% and let the remaining 10% stay on reservations.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 16]
The Meek Shall Inherit
Shown 13/Feb/89
The Aliens have decided to sabotage the phone network of the Western seaboard of the USA. To that end, three of them become homeless people in Portland, Oregon.
Harrison Blackwood's stepmother ( Ann Robinson from the original 1953 movie) is having a bad time of it in the Old Folks Home. She busts out, along with a formerly homeless lady, and they make their way towards Portland. Harrison and his female sidekick try to find the women, before the Aliens do.
Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) encounters an intruder, and has a poorly choreographed martial arts fight. He then sets about recruiting a new Special Forces unit, staffed with a mis-matched dirty dozen. Unfortunately, none of them will be treated like individuals again. After this episode, the carefully crafted background characters will be replaced with a bunch of anonymous extras.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 17]
Unto Us a Child is Born
Shown 20/Feb/89
A trio of aliens try to sabotage a shopping mall. One of them has to swop bodies to evade pursuit ... but the victim is a pregnant woman, and the shock of the takeover causes her to go into labour.
The baby is taken to hospital, where it turns out to be a Starchild ... its alien DNA causes it to age at an accelerated way. The good guys discover the truth about the baby. Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) deploys his Special Forces units, with Mac-10 Ingrams to go with their white coats.
There are a couple of twist endings. This is quite a dark show, with an episode like this about a child being put in jeopardy. John Pyper-Ferguson ( Alphas ) makes an appearance as an alien.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 18]
The Last Supper
Shown 06/Mar/89
To try and get global help against the Alien invasion, they hold a conference in Philadelphia. The delegates include a Russian (Colm Feore - Revolution: Season 1 ) and a North Korean/Red Chinese (James Hong - Big Trouble in Little China ).
This is a mid-Season clip show, with selected bits of previous episodes to provide exposition. But they are small in number, well-chosen, and the main framing plot of the episode is well-cast and holds up well in its own right.
The Aliens discover the existence of the conference, and launch an all-out assault on it. Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) and his small band of Special Forces troops are providing security. Will they be enough?
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 19]
Vengeance Is Mine
Shown 17/Apr/89
Ironhorse (Richard Chaves - Predator ) is on ambush duty without a partner, and accidentally shoots a civilian ( Carolyn Dunn ). Strangely, he starts feeling guilty about it.
Unfortunately, the woman who Ironhorse killed had an obsessive husband (Denis Forest, one of the main aliens in Season 2 ). He appears to be some kind of anarchist terrorist, with an extensive arsenal that includes a sniper rifle, a pump-action shotgun and a supply of home-made explosives How ironic that despite taking on an entire army of superhuman monsters from outer space, the only time Colonel Ironhorse is in any jeopardy is when he crosses paths with a lone nut.
The Aliens have been steeling industrial lenses. They have secretly created a laser-cannon. To make it work, they must bulk-buy rubies. To do this, they must obtain five million dollars in cash ...
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 20]
My Soul to Keep
Shown 24/Apr/89
Journalist Michael Parks ( From Dusk Til Dawn ) gets a tip from a mysterious informant. This Deep Throat claims that The Blackwood Project is secretly killing illegal immigrants. The reason why a murderous operation like that would require a astrophysicist and a biologist, both world-class, is never delved into.
The Aliens are still hiding in the mines in Nevada, where the high levels of radiation keep them safe from bacteria. Unfortunately, this also kills their eggs. Their answer is to take over a low-temperature refridgeration facility. After all, the next batch of eggs will not be available for seven years, so they would be as well waiting for the Second Wave of invaders to arrive.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 21]
So Shall Ye Reap
Shown 01/May/89
The aliens infiltrate a drugs cartel in Chicago. They use the narcotics trade as a way of turning humans into Fast Zombies.
The Blackwood group go undercover as DEA agents. Unfortunately, a lady detective does not want Feds in her jurisdiction. She gets nosy, and their cover is jeopardised.
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 22]
The Raising of Lazarus
Shown 08/May/89
An alien life-pod is extracted, frozen in ice for centuries. Blackwood's group are ordered to hand it over to another unit, who are based in Hanger 15 and retro-fit alien tech for the US Military-Industrial Complex. Unfortunately, the alien is still alive - like in The Thing .
As with the International Conference and Ironhorse's Special forces unit, this is a nice example of an approach to the Alien invasion scenario that was later developed and explored by the TV show Stargate SG-1 .
War of the Worlds [Season 1, Episode 23]
The Angel of Death
Shown 15/May/89
A woman with big hair is really a fembot from another world, with a mission to kill all the aliens. She can see their aura, and intends to hunt and kill the Advocates single-handed.
Of course, the woman's creators have an agenda of their own. This was never explored in Season 2, which is a pity in itself, but it does give an irony to the last line Blackwood speaks!
